Visit Estes Park Board of Directors has shakeup, new treasurer

The Visit Estes Park Board of Directors made changes to their leadership and had the swearing in and resignation of separate members during their regular meeting on Wednesday, June 13.

At the beginning of the meeting, it was noted that Board Member Morgan Mulch had resigned to spend more time with his family, and a new board member, Sean Jurgens, was sworn in.

During the last action item of the meeting, Board member Charlie Dickey made a motion to replace Steve Kruger as Board Chair, and that motion was seconded by Board member David Ciani. The motion failed by a vote of 4 to 1.

Kruger then motioned to replace Charlie Dickey as Treasurer and Secretary, and that motion was also seconded by Ciani.

"This is based on your refusal to sign checks at the last meeting, [this Board] passed a policy of no public emails which you are not following, and you are not fulfilling your fiduciary duties," Kruger said to Dickey.

Board member Lindsay Lansom told Dickey he effectively resigned his position when he failed to sign checks.

"You either want to be a part of this or not," Lansom said.

Dickey responded by questioning whether the issues he had uncovered as tresurer were contributing to the board's action to remove him.

"It is interesting when I question why there are four signatories, why we are over budgeted on two line items and don't have a purchasing policy, now you want to get me off to the side," Dickey said. "This is really making a statement if you do this."

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The motion to remove Dickey from his leadership position passed by a vote of 5 to 1.

Lansom nominated Sean Jurgens—the newest member of VEP who was sworn in at the same meeting—for the Treasurer/Secretary position. Jurgens was approved by a vote of 4 to 0 with Jurgens and Dickey abstaining.

Lansom also said that Dickey was hostile to a Visit Estes Park staff member, and this was reiterated by Kruger during the Board comments.

"Your actions at the last meeting have me concerned, as well as the abusive behavior to VEP staff," Kruger said. "Based on this behavior you should consider resigning."

Board member Adam Shake also spoke to Dickey about his recent comments at the Town Board of Trustees meeting, refuting points by Dickey he didn't agree with. Shake remarked that CEOs are often the representative of an organization and minutes are often edited, but doesn't change the truth.

"I am disappointed to be removed of course," Dickey said a day later. "It is not surprising though, I have been a pain [to the Board] since the third or fourth day because I keep questioning."

Dickey said at the end of Board meeting last month, he requested a description of his responsibilities and duties as treasurer. According to Dickey, he never got that description and an action item was added to the agenda that called his duties into question.

"I was told [by Steve Kruger] that we were going to discuss roles and responsibilities," Dickey said. "But obviously there was some behind doors stuff going on that didn't involve me."

Dickey said he is not considering resigning and that his expectation is for the Town Board of Trustees or the Larimer County Commissioners will do something about the organization.

Visit Estes Park CEO Elizabeth Fogarty, after consulting with other Board members, said in a statement that:

"The most compromising [reason for removing Dickey as Treasurer] were those that are in direct conflict of the District's Bylaws, including Board roles and responsibilities of speaking publicly with one voice after a decision has been reached, performing appropriate fiduciary responsibilities, and acting in the best interest of the DMO. There were also numerous issues that were also shared at the meeting, including swearing at staff, directing staff, refusing to sign a Resolution 3-17 [which designated four signatories], refusing to sign checks and refusing to abide by the VEP policy of not sharing public emails due to proprietary and/or confidential information contained therein unless approved by the Board. Furthermore, the board shared their concerns of Charley's unprofessional and outlandish behavior."

The Board also proceeded through their strategic planning process and reviewed a lot of process policy for the Board. They also discussed short and long term goals for a winter/spring seasonal campaigns to continue to bring visitors around the world to Estes Park.

During the public comment section of the meeting, Estes Park Trail Gazette's managing editor Daniel West commented to the Board that having public comment at the beginning of the meeting, as opposed to the end, allows community members to be able to plan and make comments without having to wait until the end of a meeting. The VEP board recently changed their policy to take public comment at the end of meetings, as well as requiring commenters to sign in before making comments.

He also made a correction to comments about a meeting between VEP leadership and leadership from the Trail Gazette at the last VEP meeting.

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